Improvement in concussion-fuses for shells



S- R- RUssELL.

Shell-Fuse.

Patented Dec. 16, `-1862.

y b NO 37,200.

Inventor:

l Witnesses: WMM/MMM JM?,

receive the said charge.

UivrTnn STnTns PATENT Ormea.

' SAMUEL It. RUSSELL, OF MIDDLETOVN, OHIO, ASSIG-NOR TO IIITISELF, ANI) BENJ. FY TEFFT, OF BANGOR, MAINE.

IMPROVEMENT IN CONCUSSlON-FUSES FOR SNELLE.

Speeilicniion forming part of Letters Patent No. 37,200, dated Ileeeinberll,13H2.

To 1J/Z whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, SAMUEL I?. Ussi-ILL, of Middletown, in the county of Butler, State ot' Ohio, have invented a new and Improved Fuse for Exploding Bomb-Projectiles;` and I do hereby declare that the following is a full and exact description thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and to the letters of reference made thereon.

My invention consists in a combination and particular adaptation of means for the explosion of shells by a fuse lighted by and at the moment of the discharge of the gun and carried forward by and at the instant ofthe impact ofthe shell with resisting object, so as to bring the ignited fuse in Contact with the powder within the shell at the moment of said impact, as herein fully described.

To enable others skilled in the art to make and use my improvement, I proceed to describe its construction and operation by letters of reference made on the accompanying drawings.

Figure l is a sectional view of a shell ready :for use with my said improvement attached. Fig. 2 represents my improvement ready to be attached to a shell. Fig. 3 is a tin or other metallic tube with perforations E E E. Fig. 4 is an iron plunger with the fuse C attached. Fig. 5 is an iron plug with an orifice through the center to receive the fuse C, with a screw on the end by which to attach it to the shell. Fig. 6d is a small iron cap, which fits onto the shell over the fuse to prevent the fuse from being driven forward by the force of the pow.- der within the gun at the moment of discharge. Fig. 7 represents a shell ready to receive its charge, A being the chamber to -K K is the outside of the shell. E is a small opening through the shell to receive the charge after t-he parts represented by the Figs. 3, 4, 5 have been fitted into the oriiice D. Fig. S is a small iron plug to be tted into the opening It (see Fig. 7) after the shell has received its charge. Fig. 9 represents my improvement with the plunger D and its fuse thrown forward by the impact of the shell upon its object, so as to admit the powder through the perforations of the lighted fuse C, and thus producing the explosion of the shell at the moment ol" its impact with its resisting object.

The parts of my improvement are iitted together,so as to be ready for insertion into the shell, as seen in Fig. 2, in the manner following: First, insert the plungerl), with fuse (l attached, within the tin tube, so that the said plunger will cover and close the perforations at E E E, the plunger being wrapped with india-rubber, so as to iit it so snugly to the tin tube that it could not be thrown forward b y concussion as by dropping it in the ordinary handling of the shell; second, lit the plug H into the tin tube as far as the threads of the screws F F will permit, the fuse C being passed through the orifice T while the plug His being fitted into the tube. After my improvement, thus fitted together, is at tached to the shell by means of the screw F F on the end of the plug II, the small iron cap represented in Fig. 6 is placed over the fuse C, and is held in position by two small rivets, for the purpose before stated, the fuse C terminating at the top in two threads, which, after being saturated with turpentine or like combustible fluid, so as to easily ignite from the fire of the powder withinthe gun at the moment of discharge, are to be placed `within the small iron cap y y.

rIhe advantages of a shell thus loaded aris ing from my said improvement as thus attached are that after being loaded it cannot be exploded by mere concussion, however viA olent, rendering it therefore entirely safe in handling; that on shipboard, in a magazine, or anywhere, it is entirely safe from iire, as the fuse might ignite and burn out without exploding the shell, unless accompanied at the same instant by a concussion so violent as it can receive by nothing less than contact with a powerfully-resisting object upon being discharged from a gun, the tightness of the wrapped plunger and fuse being nicely gradir ated to this end, and that, safe as is the shell in all possible handling, it cannot i'ail to explode by the means of my apparatus at the moment of impact with a resisting object.

I am aware that it is not new for fuses to be the tin tube at E E E to come in contact with y so arranged as to be ignited on startingby the discharge of the gun, and to connnunicrite their fire' to the explosive shell onlyby the concussion received on striking un object, as this is effected bythe Snoeck fuse7 as Well :1s by the Splingard fuse. Such7 therefore7 I do not claim, generally; but

What I do claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

- The combination, with u projectile7 of the perforated tube B, the plunger D, plugH, and fuse C, arranged and operated in the inanner and for the purposes substantially as herein described.

SAML. R. RUSSELL. 

